Deccan Chargers limited to 126

or the briefest of periods, Deccan Chargers looked like posting a total that might give them a fair chance of earning their first win of this IPL season. And then, even though wickets did not fall in a heap, their innings stuttered as the scoring rate began to splutter. The odd boundary would be followed by periods of low productivity, depriving Chargers of any momentum whatsoever. The upshot was a modest target, making Kolkata Knight Riders favourites to earn their fourth win of the tournament.

The start in Cuttack was delayed by a little more than an hour because of rain, but no overs were lost. Before the interruption, however, both captains had got what they wanted at the toss, with Kumar Sangakkara saying he would have batted after Gautam Gambhir chose to bowl. Sangakkara did not go on to have a good day, losing his middle stump to L Balaji after a scratchy 12 off 15 balls.

Shikhar Dhawan, on the other hand, was spunky at the start. In the third over, he heaved Yusuf Pathan, who had opened the bowling with his offspin, over wide long-on for six and chipped over mid-on for four. Little did Chargers know at the time that it would be the innings' only six, until Dale Steyn hit one in the 20th over. Dhawan also pulled Brett Lee and drove him powerfully for four, gathering five boundaries in his first 22 balls. Little did Dhawan know he would not hit another one in his next 28 deliveries.

Chargers had made 30 for 0 after four overs when the slowdown began, with Sunil Narine and L Balaji operating with discipline for Knight Riders. Soon after Chargers would hit a boundary, Knight Riders would regain ground by string together several economical deliveries. As a result, the batsmen were unable to put the bowlers under consistent pressure - there were no consecutive boundaries through the entire innings.

After Sangakkara fell, Dhawan and Parthiv Patel batted for 5.4 overs without dominating the bowling. Parthiv was eventually run out in the 12th over, but even Cameron White, who replaced Daniel Christian for this game, could not improve Chargers' situation. He fell slogging Lee to deep square leg as Chargers got stuck deeper in the mire. Lee's last two overs, the 15th and 17th, yielded only four runs.

Dhawan had anchored the innings but he too was going nowhere, and his struggle ended when he mis-hit a full toss from Rajat Bhatia to deep midwicket. He was gone for a run-a-ball 50. He would say later that the pitch was hard to bat on.

Despite the slow run-rate Chargers had lost only two wickets in 14 overs, which meant JP Duminy came in only in the 15th, when White fell. He too could not find fluency, and neither could any of the other lower-order batsmen. Balaji and Narine picked up two wickets apiece during economical spells as Chargers were limited to 126 for 7.